According to the AP article it isn’t forced per say, but it is highly leveraged onto inmates using early release/parole.
Turning down work can jeopardize chances of early release in a state that last year granted parole to only 8% of eligible prisoners — an all-time low, and among the worst rates nationwide — though that number more than doubled this year after public outcry.
Sharkticon@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
I would say threatening someone with more prison time absolutely counts as “forced”.
setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m not justifying or agreeing with it, but I think accuracy is important to minimize holes people can poke in discussions when you bring things like this up. It isn’t precisely being threatened with more time than the initial sentence, it is being threatened with not successfully getting a shorter time through parole.
Sharkticon@lemmy.zip 1 day ago
Again though, for the sake of accuracy, that’s still Force. Saying you won’t be eligible for something that you should be eligible for normally, taking away that opportunity via a threat is absolutely Force.
setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I’m not here to argue on the situation. What I am saying is that if you discuss this with somebody neutral or opposed to you, it matters to make sure you position yourself well. Otherwise you can get completely sidetracked over words, as we are currently.
If you say “prisoners are being forced to work”, that can turn into a losing discussion quickly when you have to get into an extended discussion about how prisoners aren’t actively being dragged to work against their will. Actively being dragged out of their cells and put to work would be the initial connotation, as I’ve even seen in this thread. Once that connotation is shown not to be what’s happening, you’ll lose people quickly.
If right out of the gate you say prisoners are being coerced to work with the threat of an unfair parole hearing, you are on a much stronger foundation that people can’t truthfully pick at.
I get the feeling you feel so strongly about this that you might not care about what other people initially think initially or that you don’t want to give ground on what qualifies as forcing something, but if you want to get your message across, making it more bulletproof helps it.